January 27 – 9:50AM – Delhi.

My body is slowly collapsing inwards and outwards at the same time and with exactly the same pressure on both sides. My hands are shaking and my eyes are slightly hazy with the smog of the horizon becoming part of my permanent vision. A tuk tuk horn constantly blasts in my ears and the smell of human excrement follows me everywhere. Well… that’s an over exaggeration and all things considered I feel pretty good but I am ready for the peace and stability of San Francisco again.

We didn’t do a whole lot yesterday after the parade except hang back at the café and drink a couple beers. We just needed some solace from the outside world for a little bit. I was reminded of my love for San Francisco by a traveling American we met last night named Linda. She was born and raised in my neighborhood and it was good to talk about all the great restaurants and bars in SF, Shanghai Dumpling King, Pizza Orgasmica, Schroeder’s downtown… It is strange how in the beginning of this trip we sort of shied away from talking to Americans because we knew exactly what they would have to say and because we were, and still are, looking for new perspectives. But we have become a little more open now and with all of the unfamiliar that we see every day it is good to be able to love the city where you choose to make your home. I can’t wait to walk down my own street.

Not to make it sound like we aren’t into the trip or India or whatever anymore because I love every minute of it but I think we have sort of been moving into relaxation-vacation mode more in the last few days. Well actually even though we say we want to relax we still end up doing much more than we would do on any given weekend back home so… I guess now we’re just making sure to try to squeeze in a little bit of nothing at the end of the day to soothe our nerves. For instance, despite walking around all day yesterday Kevin and Linda and I tried to go out last night to a sort of far away neighborhood that had a hookah place called Lounge Lizards where they play lounge music from what our guide book said. To make a long story short we got into a tuk tuk, the driver said he knew where the hookah place was but then couldn’t find it because he most definitely did not know where it was. We asked many people on the streets if they knew the place but had no success. We gave up after buzzing around the dark streets of Delhi and were thoroughly chilled to the bone by the brisk Delhi night. We showed up back at the place where we started an hour earlier, the front of our hotel, with no hookah and 500 rupees lighter for the trip. In the end it was all good because we had some delightful conversation on the ride.

And despite trying to do the relax thing that I have been talking about, today we are actually going to try and see some more sights around town. We’ll most likely go check out the Red Fort that was the home of the Shah Jahan, then to the Jama Masjid which is a mosque that has large minarets that you can walk up with a view of the entirety of Delhi, then to a rough guides recommended authentic local restaurant with good meat dishes even though I have been eating mutton nearly every meal and then, to finish it off, we’ll head to the spice bazaar if we can find it.